Schizophrenia is the scourge or cancer of psychiatry. It was recognized as a category of mental disorder in the 19th century and has been classified in many ways. Yet even today it is considered as a waste-basket diagnosis embracing many kinds of serious deviations in thinking, feeling and behavior. There is considerable discussion about the nature/nurture components involved in the causes. Lately considerable hope is entertained that it need not be a chronic disease requiring life-long institutionalization. It is our purpose to study patients with various disturbances considered to be schizophrenic over long periods of time, testing them at frequent intervals to determine the specific characteristics of subtypes, their causal factors, course and outcome. Our research encompasses patient interviews, observations and tests, studies of parents and siblings and various biological studies on the same patient over time. Up to this point in time we have interviewed on tape, reviewed and coded some 300 subjects of whom over a 100 have been followed from 1 to 5 years. Family studies have progressed. Psychological test material has been accumulated and is being compared to psychiatric interviews. We propose to study 500 cases of consecutive hospital admissions between age 18-28 and follow them until they reach 40 years of age.